Swedish domestic worker Emina Johnson witnessed the great Peshtigo firestorm in 1871; Cherokee nurse Isabella Wolfe served the Lac du Flambeau reservation for decades; the author's own grandmother, Matilda Schopp, was one of numerous immigrants who eked out a living on the Wisconsin cutover. Historian Joan Jensen spent more than a decade delving into the lives of a remarkable range of Native and settler women who lived during Wisconsin's frontier era, from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, and here presents their stories. Jensen reveals how these individuals cared for their sick, educated their children, maintained their cultural identity, and preserved their own means of worship, all while trying to adapt as local economies evolved from logging to dairying to tourism.